Names

David and I have spent hours and hours and hours discussing what to do about the boys' names. First, we thought we would just keep their Chinese names. After all, it's a big part of their identity and heritage. But then we also want them to feel comfortable, and an American name might be easier for them in the long-run. It's not fun always having to correct people or have people stumble over your name constantly. In addition, having a new American name might be a nice transition, a way to signify that these children are our sons now. We even sent a letter to FengHong to ask him how he felt about having an American name. Then we sent an email to a man who has adopted eight times from China, and we asked him what he does about the children's names. He said that they do always give their adopted children a new name, but the middle name is their Chinese name. All the way to New York City, David and I hashed out various names. A month ago, we went out for our date night and brought a name-list with us. We quickly settled on Benjamin (Ben) for BingHui. It's close enough to his Chinese name that we thought it would be easy for him to adjust to the new name. However, even after we got the whole restaurant involved in the discussion, we couldn't come up with a decent American "F" name for FengHong. Frank was the only name we both could tolerate, but then we'd have Benjamin and Franklin. That is just too cutesy for us, naming our boys after one of our famous Presidents. Last night, Cheng (our exchange student) suggested we find a name that starts with a J, which sounds close to Jiang, FengHong's last name. Currently, David and I like the name Jackson (Jack). We can only hope that the boys LIKE their names, after we spent so much time trying to decide on the names. Sometimes children in China have already selected an English name for their English language class. If this is the case, then we might have to just go with their pre-selected name. In the meantime, we need to start getting used to calling them Ben and Jack, I guess. If we don't get used to their names ourselves, it will be difficult to feel natural about the name choices later. So, what's in a name? In this case, a whole lot of time, thought, and effort!

Mumbo Jumbo

Today I asked for clarification of exactly how long we would need to be in Beijing. I received the following instructions:
Sandy,
In Beijing, families usually take temporary custody at the orphanage on Sunday, complete the adoption processing at the Civil Affairs Office on Monday, and apply for the child's passport the same day. Sometimes the passport will not be ready until the following Monday, but the family will need to fly to Guangzhou on Friday in order to have the child's visa medical on Saturday (assuming that the family has a visa appointment on a Tuesday).
If this would be the case for your family, your guide in Beijing will express mail the passports to your guide in Guangzhou and she would receive it in time for the visa interview. If your family requests and the consulate confirms a visa appointment on a Tuesday, there should be enough time to receive both children's passports before the interview. The visa process takes 3 days now, so the earliest we advice families to depart Guangzhou is 3 days after the visa appointment, which would be Friday for your family (if the visa appointment is on a Tuesday). Following this travel plan, the trip would last around 2 weeks.

Yeah, now you know how very complicated this entire process is, and why we can't follow what is going on 1/2 the time. I did figure out that we should plan to arrive in China on a Saturday and leave on a Friday. That's good to know.

Travel Notice for BingHui

We did it! We finally received our travel notice for BingHui!! Theoretically, we could travel any time now; however, we are still waiting for the I-800 approval, article 5 letter and travel notice for FengHong. They will be rushing these things though (we hope) because our travel notice for BingHui expires March 10th. I've been looking at flights, and things look good for Jan. or Feb. My fingers are crossed that FengHong's paperwork is swift. We feel like we've been waiting for a long time now.

Article 5

We just received news that CCAA was sent the article 5 letter for BingHui!! Whoo hoo. We should receive the invitation to travel very, very soon. But, of course, we have to wait for the I-800 and article 5 for FengHong too, and that could be a couple more months. At least we know we're not forgotten.

Not Quite

Well, the package from China wasn't our invitation to travel. It was a package from Cheng's family (for Christmas). Drats. We did receive our referral packet for FengHong from WACAP though, and two more letters of confirmation. We had already signed two letters of confirmation for BingHui, and now we have another letter of confirmation for BingHui, and one for FengHong. We don't ask questions anymore; we just sign the forms and send them back. Of course we also make a copy of everything we sign, just in case. We still think we'll receive our invitation to travel any day now. Actually, we're waiting for another I-800 approval for FengHong, and then we should (hopefully) receive our invitation to travel (and article 5 letter) a few weeks after that. According to the wait time we experienced with BingHui, we should receive our I-800 approval for FengHong at the end of next week. Three weeks after that, most people receive their article 5 letter from the consulate. If that is the case, we might be able to travel the beginning of January or early Feb. The middle of Feb. is Chinese New Year holiday, and all the government offices are closed. So, it's either early Feb. or March. We're just taking one day at a time.

Almost there!

We are in NYC this weekend to watch Austin run the Jesuit Championship race, but our adoption journey continues. Victor went to check on our house and said a big envelope arrived from WACAP. That would be our referral packet for FengHong. Then he told us another envelope arrived from Guangzhou. This COULD be it! This could be the travel notice! If it is the travel notice, then we can finally make arrangements to fly to China!! We are still in NYC for Austin's meet, and I can't wait to get home to open our mail. It's funny how mail has become important to me this year. I used to have David get the mail on his way home from work, but since completing our adoption application a year ago, I've run to the mailbox everyday, much like a young child might. I anxiously scan the letters, hoping against hope that there is something from WACAP or the Dept. of Homeland Security. Now, while we're out of town, it looks like we might have received important mailings. If it is our notice to travel for BingHui, we have to find out if we can proceed, or if we need to wait for a second notice to travel for FengHong. Speaking of FengHong, David and I have talked of nothing else lately but his name. We spent hours talking about how to, and if we should, change FengHong's name. We pour over baby name lists trying to come up with a name similar to FengHong that sounds kind of American. No success at this point. We are wondering if he has already taken an English name; sometimes the children take American names for their English class. We want to know how FengHong will feel about an American name. We grapple with this everyday, while we wait to travel.

Letter of confirmation

We received a call last night that WACAP has received our letter of confirmation for FengHong! WACAP will put together our referral packet now, and we can sign all the official paperwork. Then it will all get sent to US immigration so that they can issue the I800 approval for FengHong. What it boils down to is that we MIGHT get to travel in approximately 3 months. This is good news because we've been trying to get an idea of WHEN, and it's been vague ever since we decided to adopt FengHong too. It's been hard to plan our holidays, wondering if we might travel in December, and now we know that it is more likely to be Feb. or March. Moving forward, we are starting to tell people about FengHong. As expected, people think we're nuts for adopting two children. They are especially shocked that we would agree to adopt a teenager. Teens are tough under the best of circumstances, and we are taking a big risk adopting a 13 year old. Oh well. We can't live our lives trying to please other people. We need to do what we are called to do and just trust the Lord. We feel that FengHong belongs in our family and we will address the problems as they arise.